The #stampoftheday offerings for today are a 2- and a 5-cent stamps issued on May 18, 1925 that marked two important events in the history of “Norse-Americans.”

The 2-cent stamp commemorating the arrival of the first Norwegian immigrants in America, who arrived in New York on October 9, 1825, aboard the ship Restaurationen. After they docked, the captain was arrested because the ship had carried 52 passengers, far more than it was supposed to. (President John Quincy Adams pardoned him a month later.) The passengers from the ship established their first settlement in Kendall, a small town in New York located on the banks of Lake Erie near Rochester. Buffalo and Niagara Falls. Since there were no known images of the ship, the picture of the ship on the stamp was as based on a sister ship of similar design, built at the same time and place as the Restaurationen. The stamp’s detailed frame pictures dragon heads and shields similar to those found on ancient Norse ships.

The 5-cent stamp honors Leif Ericson (and his crew of about) 35 men, who supposedly were became the first Europeans to reach North America, arriving in around 1000 CE. They supposedly sailed a ship similar to the one shown on the Viking ship stamp. However, it seems unlikely that their ship, like the one shown in the stamp, flew a U.S. flag. Responding to critics who questioned the stamp’s historic accuracy, Postal Officials claimed the design showed a replica that sailed from Norway to America in 1893 for the World’s Columbian Exposition that did carry an American flag.

The two stamps were among the handful of stamps produced since 1901 Pan-Americans to feature bi-color printing, a costly and time-consuming process. Because the stamps took so long to print (and because they had to be printed in sheets of 100, rather than the more typical 400 stamps, the Post Office printed fewer of these stamps than it usually did. When the stamps were released, they were in great demand, with post offices around the country receiving several calls for them daily. While collectors called for a second printing, Post Office leaders decided that this would be too costly. As a result, less than 300 post offices reportedly received any of these stamps and many got only one or two sheets. This means that while many stamps from this era often sell for about their face value, these command a small premium. An unused 2- or 5-cent stamps lists for $10-$20 (though dealers would pay much less for them if, hypothetically, they were purchasing them from someone whose parent used to collect stamps).